David Gergen

You've promised that you're going to get out. Iraq has been on simmer.

If Democrats are elected they're going to face a serious dilemma in Iraq.

Basically that no candidate arrives at the convention with enough delegates to win the first ballot.

He can't afford probably to have somebody that they are as suspicious of as they are of him.

They have been looking for that for a long time. They do believe that she's the candidate they can beat.

I think he unites Republicans on national security issues, first of all, because he seems vindicated, and he was the stalwart man of principle who supported a surge, and now it's turned out well.

I don't think he closed the sale. But I think he made a lot of progress.

We need someone who is ... going to need a consensus builder.

We're going to need an extraordinary leadership over the next four years.

You can only persuade the Americans. This is what John McCain is saying, we will only sign an agreement in the United States if China and India also sign an agreement.

I must say, this is one area where the candidates on both sides, John McCain and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are all in favor of doing something about climate change.

The big thing of our time, it's a big movement of our time is that the center of gravity in the world, geopolitically and to a large extent economically is moving from the West to Asia.

The new president may well be put in the position of having to come up with a short-term economic plan for the next year or two.

I think it does. The Bush administration's view, and I think one that's supported widely by Republicans is, first they give up their nuclear ambitions and then we will talk.

When the new president comes in, it's very important to be very clear about what your goals are.

What the new president wants to do is see if you can stabilize the place and make sure it's not a center of terrorism to threaten us.

What you as a new president have to make sure is, that if this thing gets a lot worse, all the blame doesn't come to you, so you lose on your political stand.

The president has already pledged 3,000 and they think we should go far beyond that.

A John McCain presidency would look very different in Iraq. It would look very much like George W. Bush in his policies; it will be a continuation of those policies.

You've promised that you're going to get out. Iraq has been on simmer. George Bush is going to give you something that looks like it's doing better.

If Democrats are elected, they're going to face a serious dilemma in Iraq. It's going to be one of the toughest problems they face and one of the toughest presidencies I think we've ever faced.

I don't think there is an actual front-runner. And Hillary Clinton is slightly ahead. But, as we look at the next month leading up to March 4, the board tilts to Barack Obama.

I think the general assumption is that -- that he benefits more from a long race. It gives people more -- what we know, obviously -- and John King just talked about it again -- is, the more people get to know him, the better they like him.

If he pulls it off in Massachusetts, he's going to have real bragging rights.

John McCain is way, way ahead in the northeast. I mean, I just don't think he's -- I think the only state in question is Massachusetts.